I was originally going to post something a bit more upbeat/funny today, but last night a weird sort of "tragedy" occurred. One of my first "friends" from Flickr.com committed virtual suicide, removing his photostream and taking off his profile, thus removing himself from the 'Stream. He also removed his Facebook profile, (which though I understand the desire to do so,) both shocked and saddened me. In the hours since, he decided to leave his photostream, so atleast people can still look at his awesome LEGO creations, but the whole effect is definitely jarring. Even more so, being that he manifested to return his images to the 'Stream, but ceased to be an active participant.
Whatever the reasons in real life that compelled him to do so, I hope he is well and that perhaps I'll see him be active again.
Recently I read about companies that are starting up that notify online friends when someone dies in real life. In the event of a sudden death, it's fair to assume that people may be left in the dark regarding their online friend's situation.
I guess in the case of our society, where online culture is grown beyond infancy to a point where people are now living part of their entire life online, this is becoming an issue. I have personally witnessed an online ""funeral", or celebration of the deceased, and I have also witnessed virtual deaths like I did last night, where someone basically erases their online existence. In my case, being part of the Flickr community, and part of a ten million+ population online gaming community, it's not unexpected for these events to occur.
A lot of the time, the avatars remain, whereas the gamer moves on, suspending their account while they do whatever else it is that they do.
I was (maybe making the mistake of) discussing this event with Mrs. Panic, who is outwardly disturbed by the idea of an online community, (despite the fact that her husband has been participating in such communities for four+ years now). She was so disturbed by the idea of people capitalizing on real life death in the online gaming world, that she had to walk away saying "Lalalala I can't hear you It's a game! I hate this crap! It's all beeps and whistles to me!" While I thought her reaction charming in its Luddite fervor, I had to note the gravity of the weirdness. My dad is terrified of the culture of technology becoming so out of touch with real life society (or as China Mieville refers to it; "The Quick"), that trends such as the online death notification companies are just the tip of the iceberg. I myself am fascinated by the whole culture on online-ness. I love watching documentaries about chinese gold farms, and reading articles about advances in law due to events in the gaming community. I haven't done all that much online living myself, but what I have experienced has definitely been life changing, and has made me aware of some parts of my personality I wasn't too excited to discover. For instance, I do subscribe to the concept of online addiction, and can claim to have been addicted to a game. Game culture has also changed my personality in several small but noticeable ways, such as speech patterns and levels of attention and patience.
I don't really know why it is I'm bringing this up with you all here at POT. Your thoughts/opinions, I guess. I know that for some of us here (me, Fugu, Litcube?, ) Online personas are more than just our Pieces of Thingscodenames, and taken somewhat seriously, but I'd be interested to know what others think about this? I know Mister Pony treats his online persona as something of a character in and of itself. that is interesting to me, as while my experience was not quite as disconnected, I often wished it could have been.
I'd like to see what you all think about the idea of online persona, and its ramifications in the "real world". There's either a lot here to discuss, or possibly nothing. I throw myself at the mercy of the court.
